Do men or women have more unread emails? [Reality checks ft. Lila Brown]

The latest episode of Reality checks with Brian Reitz features Lila Brown, Founder & CEO at Ella Bee Media Group, an agency specializing in public relations, sports marketing for Olympians, and talent management services for celebrities, entertainers, and influencers.

"I work as an Olympic and Paralympic sports agent, and I’m sending out emails, pitching my clients all the time,” said Brown. “And I want a response. I want someone to let me know it’s been received or what they think, because I like to collaborate.”

To uncover the reality behind email etiquette, Lila Brown and the YouGov team collaborated on a five-question survey of 1,000 Americans, covering when responses are owed, why someone wouldn’t respond to an email, how many unread emails are sitting in America’s inboxes, and more.

Do Americans like receiving cold emails?

While a majority of Americans (60%) believe there is an acceptable way to send a cold email, only a small fraction find the practice broadly acceptable. Just 29% of respondents consider cold emailing to be very or somewhat acceptable, highlighting a significant gap between those who see potential merit in the practice and those who view it favorably overall. These findings suggest that while many Americans acknowledge there may be appropriate circumstances for unsolicited emails, the majority still have reservations about their use.

Do you owe a cold email a response?

YouGov data reveals a generational divide in attitudes towards responding to emails from strangers. The vast majority of Americans across all age groups don't feel obligated to respond to emails from unknown senders, even if personalized.

However, this sentiment is particularly strong among older generations, with 91% of Baby Boomers and 88% of Gen X indicating they don't owe a response.

In contrast, Gen Z shows a notably different perspective, with a third (33%) believing they should respond if the email is personalized or in all cases.

“Gen Z... you need to get these corporate jobs, so I can reach out to you,” Brown joked on Reality checks.

Do you owe your acquaintances an email response?

The data reveals a stark contrast in email etiquette expectations when it comes to known senders compared to strangers. Across all generations, most respondents feel they owe a response to emails from people they know, with over 75% of each age group indicating they would always respond or respond to personalized messages.

Baby Boomers show the highest sense of obligation, with 83% feeling they should respond, closely followed by Gen X at 76%.

This generational trend is nearly inverse to the previous data on responding to emails from strangers, suggesting that personal connections significantly influence perceived communication responsibilities across age groups.

Why different generations don’t respond to emails

More than two-thirds of Americans (67%) would cite spam or scam emails as a reason they wouldn’t respond. Baby Boomers are the most cautious, with 76% citing potential spam or scams as a reason for not responding, compared to only 61% of Millennials.

Given our previous insight of Gen Z being much more likely to feel they owed strangers an email response, Gen Z respondents are unsurprisingly the least likely generation in this study to ignore emails due to not knowing the sender, at 50%, while 76% of Baby Boomers cite this as a reason.

Forgetfulness plays a larger role for younger generations, with 37% of Millennials admitting to forgetting to respond, and 36% saying they meant to respond later but never did, suggesting this group might benefit from follow-up reminders.

The data also shows that Gen Z is more likely to cite being too busy (36%) or having emails buried in their inbox (34%) as reasons for non-response. Gen Z also exhibits the highest level of response paralysis, with 28% reporting they didn't know how to respond to an email.

How many unread emails do you have?

Americans are more likely to have zero unread emails than more than 1,000 (23% vs. 13%).

Gender differences in email management appear more pronounced than generational variations, with men (27%) significantly more likely than women (20%) to achieve "Inbox Zero."

Gen Z exhibits the most extreme email habits, leading both in having zero unread emails in their primary inbox (28% vs 23% gen pop) and in having over 10,000 unread emails (9% vs 6% gen pop).

Meanwhile, Baby Boomers demonstrate a strong tendency towards email organization, with 75% having 100 or fewer unread emails in their primary inbox.